Memorial Day weekend is here (hooray!) and we’re stacking our to-read piles with these major media-recommended books:

Entertainment Weekly — Summer’s Must-Read Books

BOUNDLESS by Jillian Tamaki
Cartoonist Tamaki dazzles with her impressive range in this collection, marrying each short story to a different artistic style. Whether she’s writing and drawing about the pitfalls of technology or ruminating on nostalgia, her work is lush, vibrant, and packed with emotion.

LIFE IN CODE by Ellen Ullman
Ullman, a computer programmer since the ’70s, expands on the themes she covered in 1997’s CLOSE TO THE MACHINE with pieces about what it was like on the forefront of the tech revolution, being a woman in a male-donimated industry, and how the tech landscape has (and hasn’t) changed.

THE PEOPLE WE HATE AT THE WEDDING by Grant Ginder
In Ginder’s glitzy beach read, things spiral out of control in the days leading up to a wedding as a charmingly dysfunctional family—brimming with oddball stepsiblings—does everything it can to sabotage the nuptials.

Jonathan Lethem, author of A GAMBLER’S ANATOMY & owner of Red Gap Books, a used and rare bookstore in Blue Hill, ME recommends BROKEN RIVER by J. Robert Lennon
“It’s a tense, surprising thriller, with perverse overtones of the Coen brothers variety, but containing an enigmatic narrative device, a kind of ‘haunting of the point-of-view’ – one which proves, as ever, that the novel can do things nothing but the novel can do. I’m almost ready to reread it.”

Jeff Kinney, author of the bestselling “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” series and owner of An Unlikely Story in Plainville, MA recommends RADICAL CANDOR by Kim Scott (“Scott’s experiences leading teams at Google and Apple led to this book, which espouses a workplace culture where leaders care deeply about their employees and challenge them to be their best selves.”) and BORNE by Jeff VanderMeer (“The cover alone had me hooked. Is the protagonist a plant? An animal? Something in between?”).

Louise Erdrich, author of LAROSE & owner of Birchbark Books in Minneapolis, MN recommends THE SONG POET by Kao Kalia Yang“The exquisite story of Kao Kalia Yang’s father, village life, war life, refugee life, then a St. Paul housing project; America’s secret war in Laos; and a people’s history as sung by Bee Yang and remembered in fascinating and poetic detail by his daughter.”

IT’S ALWAYS THE HUSBAND by Michele Campbell
Fans of Ruth Ware and Gillian Flynn meet your next obsession. Kate, Aubrey, and Jenny were inseparable in college. 20 years later, one of them is found dead. How did it come to this? Alternating between their college years and the present day, readers slowly come to realize that their friendship was anything but perfect. But can feelings that strong really lead to murder, or will everyone assume, as is often the case, that it’s always the husband? Only one way for you to find out… readmoreremove

THE ANSWERS by Catherine Lacey
Catherine Lacey’s novel THE ANSWERS centers around people looking for the answers to love, to emotions, to ailing bodies. Mary, a young woman in New York City, is desperate for a cure for her paralyzing pain when she finally finds an effective treatment that she can’t afford. To pay for it, she joins eccentric actor Kurt Sky’s “Girlfriend Experiment” — a project for which Sky has recruited multiple women to fulfill different roles in an attempt to create the perfect romantic relationship — and becomes his “Emotional Girlfriend,” along the way learning more about herself and the nature of connection.

GOODBYE, VITAMIN by Rachel Khong
Heartbroken after her engagement is called off and feeling that her life has become a mess, 30-year-old Ruth quits her job and goes home to her parents to take care of her father, who is in the early stages of Alzheimer’s. As his condition grows worse, Ruth devotes herself to researching supplements and meals that might restore his memory. Tender yet funny in turns, GOODBYE, VITAMIN offers poignant insight into family, memory, marriage, parenthood, love, and loss.

THE CITY ALWAYS WINS by Omar Robert Hamilton
Omar Robert Hamilton’s THE CITY ALWAYS WINS is a vivid, powerful portrait of Egypt’s failed revolution in 2011. Through the eyes of Mariam and Khalil, two young people fighting at the front lines of the revolution in the streets of Cairo and its political underground, THE CITY ALWAYS WINS is an urgent and relevant work that captures the realities of class friction, war, torture, and dictatorships.

MY LIFE WITH BOB by Pamela PaulMY LIFE WITH BOB is the ultimate book about reading books — New York Times Book Review editor Pamela Paul has kept a journal (named Bob) for 28 years, meticulously tracking every book she’s ever read. The result is an intimate look into her interior life and the ways in which the stories she has read have changed her own story. Clever and heartfelt, MY LIFE WITH BOB will appeal to anyone with a deep love for reading.readmoreremove